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major reference

The category “gnostic,” however, has conventionally included still other movements. The most famous of them are the Valentinian traditions that Irenaeus and other heresiologists discuss at great length and which are also found among the Nag Hammadi works. The evidence regarding Valentinus himself…

contribution to Christian myth

The gnostic sects—among them the Valentinians, Basilidians, Ophites, and Simonians—developed a variety of myths. Among them were those of Valentinus, who lived in Rome and Alexandria in the mid-2nd century. Valentinian myths describe how the pleroma (spiritual realm) that existed in the beginning was disrupted by a Fall. The Creator…